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How to Pack Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes: Children Ages 10-14

How we filled our Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes for a boy and girl, ages 10-14 years old.

How we filled our Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes for a boy and girl, ages 10-14 years old.

I've been pretty excited because my MOPS group is collecting shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I have never done this before and it was just such a fun opportunity to do something for kids in need. I had a GREAT time packing the shoe boxes. The boys helped a little, but I did most of the work because I didn't want them running off with my supplies.

I did find myself leaning strongly towards items that are useful. Maybe it's a complete mom thing, but I wanted to make sure the kids had hygiene and safety items first. I tried to think of things that I'd want with me if I was living where they are. The box is only so big.

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Tutorial

I actually came across this advice on what to put in the shoe boxes and found it super helpful. Make sure you read it because there are a lot of things that I just wouldn't have thought of.

Obviously most of this "work" involves stuffing all of the stuff into a shoe box! Not too complicated, but I wanted to address a couple of ideas and suggestions.

It would be helpful to have the shoe boxes available on your shopping trip to make sure everything will fit. You can fill them as you go, then empty them for cashier to scan when you get to register.

To save money, you can buy some things in bulk or use items you have at home due to buying in bulk. For example, I had lots of extra bars of soap in the soap that were in their original box.

Instead of using a cardboard shoe box, I opted to use a plastic one. They were on clearance at Target for $4.66 for a set of 5! I was so excited. My understanding is that they can be useful for the kids to haul water in.

To pack more inside each box, I did remove some items from their original packaging. I decided what to keep in packaging based on what I'd want someone to do if they gifted me a box. For example, I removed the pencil sharpeners and soap boxes from their original packaging, but kept the soap in the original packaging (a box).

I used ziplock bags on items I was concerned could melt- ie. the soap, the glue stick.

Here are the boxes all packed.

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